2016 permits
Toronto building permits from 2016: 8,574 are still open
Of the building permits Toronto issued in 2016, 8,574 remained in the City’s active permit register, and half of them have been open for at least 3,668 days (about 10 years).
This is not annual permit volume. The 2016 figures on this page count permits that are still openin the City of Toronto’s active permit register today. Permits drop out of that register once they close, so older years show fewer surviving records the further back you go. Toronto issues roughly 30,000 to 40,000 permits a year; the counts here are the unclosed remainder, and they cannot be compared between years as a trend.
Still open
8,574
Median time open
3,668 d
Median value
$64,000
Total value
$2,208,871,691
Value figures cover the 4,052 of 8,574 still-open 2016 permits that disclose an estimated construction cost. Medians, not averages: the cost distribution has a long tail and an average would overstate the typical permit.
What stage the 2016 permits are at
1,333 of them (15.5%) show no sign of work having begun: the permit was issued and the file has not moved past that point.
| Status | Permits | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Inspection | 6,212 | 72.5% |
| Permit Issued | 1,301 | 15.2% |
| Revision Issued | 793 | 9.2% |
| Revocation Pending | 234 | 2.7% |
| Work Not Started | 32 | 0.4% |
| Extension Granted | 1 | 0.0% |
| Application Acceptable | 1 | 0.0% |
Still-open 2016 permits by trade
| Trade | Permits | Total value |
|---|---|---|
| Plumbing | 2,094 | $69,042,758 |
| Interior alteration | 1,397 | $286,773,422 |
| Addition | 1,357 | $138,475,507 |
| HVAC | 1,289 | $68,355,210 |
| New build | 1,051 | $1,366,803,967 |
| Other / unclassified | 424 | $30,219,346 |
| Deck | 352 | $20,403,990 |
| Roofing | 228 | $55,359,999 |
| Demolition | 183 | $98,812,400 |
| Window / Door | 164 | $68,507,592 |
| Pool | 22 | $2,229,500 |
| Electrical | 13 | $3,888,000 |
Neighbourhoods with the most open 2016 permits
| Rank | Neighbourhood | Open permits | Total value |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Downsview | 529 | $44,826,754 |
| 2 | East L'Amoreaux | 418 | $4,342,700 |
| 3 | Junction-Wallace Emerson | 230 | $78,300,200 |
| 4 | South Riverdale | 215 | $165,277,469 |
| 5 | Annex | 200 | $70,730,700 |
| 6 | Yonge-Bay Corridor | 192 | $30,674,295 |
| 7 | West Humber-Clairville | 164 | $41,448,689 |
| 8 | Wellington Place | 144 | $46,702,670 |
| 9 | Etobicoke City Centre | 144 | $33,687,079 |
| 10 | Briar Hill-Belgravia | 143 | $10,130,362 |
| 11 | Willowridge-Martingrove-Richview | 133 | $26,652,360 |
| 12 | High Park-Swansea | 132 | $11,799,734 |
| 13 | Stonegate-Queensway | 119 | $13,071,500 |
| 14 | Rosedale-Moore Park | 104 | $21,534,452 |
| 15 | Kensington-Chinatown | 102 | $9,720,800 |
| 16 | Bedford Park-Nortown | 94 | $12,815,050 |
| 17 | Roncesvalles | 91 | $35,476,500 |
| 18 | Trinity-Bellwoods | 87 | $5,987,500 |
| 19 | Greenwood-Coxwell | 86 | $4,386,500 |
| 20 | The Beaches | 84 | $6,260,500 |
Top 20 neighbourhoods by open-permit count. Areas outside this list still have open 2016 permits.
Largest 2016 projects still open
The highest-value permits from 2016 that have not closed out, ranked by estimated construction cost.
| Address | Work | Status | Open | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 42 Charles St E, Toronto, ON | New Building | Inspection | 3,559 d | $120,000,000 |
| 10 Park Lawn Rd, Toronto, ON | New Building | Inspection | 3,622 d | $116,000,000 |
| 1313 Lake Shore Blvd E, Toronto, ON | New Building | Inspection | 3,823 d | $111,323,639 |
| 4 St Thomas St, Toronto, ON | New Building | Inspection | 3,566 d | $95,000,000 |
| 15 Merchants' Wharf, Toronto, ON | New Building | Inspection | 3,557 d | $80,000,000 |
| 5200 Yonge St, Toronto, ON | New Building | Inspection | 3,501 d | $66,000,000 |
| 830 Lansdowne Ave, Toronto, ON | New Building | Inspection | 3,590 d | $60,333,000 |
| 255 Village Green Sq, Toronto, ON | New Building | Inspection | 3,494 d | $60,000,000 |
| 0 Bonis Ave, Toronto, ON | New Building | Inspection | 3,755 d | $40,000,000 |
| 223 St Clair Ave W, Toronto, ON | New Building | Inspection | 3,683 d | $35,000,000 |
| 383 Sorauren Ave, Toronto, ON | New Building | Inspection | 3,851 d | $30,000,000 |
| 431 Richmond St W, Toronto, ON | New Building | Inspection | 3,773 d | $30,000,000 |
| 45 Twenty Third St, Toronto, ON | Interior Alterations | Inspection | 3,557 d | $30,000,000 |
| 383 Jarvis St, Toronto, ON | Interior Alterations | Inspection | 3,528 d | $30,000,000 |
| 1130 Bathurst St, Toronto, ON | Interior Alterations | Inspection | 3,650 d | $28,000,000 |
| 99 The Donway W, Toronto, ON | New Building | Inspection | 3,852 d | $27,000,000 |
| 1130 Bathurst St, Toronto, ON | New Building | Inspection | 3,629 d | $27,000,000 |
| 34 Hazelton Ave, Toronto, ON | New Building | Inspection | 3,838 d | $25,000,000 |
| 40 Scott St, Toronto, ON | New Building | Inspection | 3,761 d | $25,000,000 |
| 7 St Thomas St, Toronto, ON | New Building | Inspection | 3,611 d | $19,000,000 |
| 310 Bloor St W, Toronto, ON | Interior Alterations | Inspection | 3,719 d | $18,000,000 |
| 71 Rexdale Blvd, Toronto, ON | Interior Alterations | Inspection | 3,697 d | $18,000,000 |
| 1230 Dundas St E, Toronto, ON | New Building | Inspection | 3,719 d | $17,000,000 |
| 5200 Yonge St, Toronto, ON | New Building | Inspection | 3,493 d | $16,000,000 |
| 25 The West Mall, Toronto, ON | Interior Alterations | Inspection | 3,810 d | $14,000,000 |
“Open” counts days from issue date to Jul 23, 2026. A permit remaining open does not by itself mean a project is abandoned; the City closes permits on final inspection, and some long-running projects are still legitimately active.
Track new Toronto permits the day they are issued. Historical pages show what is still open. Sign in free to see what was filed this morning.
Frequently asked questions
- How many Toronto building permits from 2016 are still open?
- 8,574 permits issued in Toronto during 2016 were still in the City's active permit register. This is the count of permits that have not closed out, not the number of permits Toronto issued in 2016. The City issues roughly 30,000 to 40,000 permits a year, and closed permits are removed from the published file.
- How long have Toronto's 2016 permits been open?
- Half of the 8,574 still-open permits from 2016 have been open for at least 3,668 days (about 10 years), measured from issue date to Jul 23, 2026. One in ten has been open longer than 3,825 days (about 10 years). These are permits the City has not closed out, which can mean a long-running project, a stalled one, or one that was finished without being signed off.
- How many 2016 Toronto permits were never started?
- 1,333 of the 8,574 surviving 2016 permits (15.5%) sit at a status indicating work has not visibly begun, such as "Permit Issued" or "Work Not Started". The approval was granted and the file shows no progression past it. The remainder are at inspection or revision stages.
- Can I compare 2016 to other years?
- No. Each year's count reflects how long its permits have had to close, so an older year showing fewer permits means more of them closed, not that less was built. Comparing 2016 to another year measures elapsed time rather than construction activity. Use the status and trade breakdowns within 2016 instead.